Tuesday, March 11, 2014

"This gal's a good player"

That was pretty much the extent of Eugenie Bouchard's on-court "coaching" experience after she won her second set against Simona Halep today in Indian Wells. Of all the embarrassing (and I know, I'm being redundant here) on-court coaching moments I've heard, this may have been the worst. I don't like on-court coaching, as readers of this blog know, but if a player is going to use it, she needs to get some strategy or some correction out of it. Maybe a bit of encouragement, too, but only as an extra. Bouchard got "This gal's a good player."

Halep, who--after taking the first set easily (6-2)--wasn't such a good player for some time. Bouchard won the second set 6-1 and didn't have much trouble doing it. Halep had her usual service problems, and even went down 3-4 in the third set. We've now come to expect her to turn things around at the last moment--and while I don't think that's a very wise way to play professional tennis--so far, it kind of works for her. She broke Bouchard back and it was once again all about Simona; she won the third set 6-4. Confidence goes a long way. Now, if she can just do something about that serve.

And speaking of players who like to get it done the hard way, Petra Kvitova went three sets yesterday to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova. She won the final set 6-0, and during the first and third sets, she looked like "real Petra."

Poor Lauren Davis, after having such a good run, she had to give Casey Dellacqua a walkover; Davis is the victim of food poisoning.

The defending champion, Maria Sharapova, was upset yesterday by qualifier Camila Giorgi. Fans sometimes talk about Giorgi's "Fighting Italian" similarities to Sara Errani, but to me, she's always most resembled Flavia Pennetta (but without the wonderful sneer). She fights and fights and fights, and when she gets a bit of a breather, she double-faults. She and Sharapova both struggled a lot during yesterday's match, and some of it was really unattractive to watch. But the Fighting Italian came through, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. (Right after this occurred, the ATP defending champion, Rafael Nadal, was also upset, by Alex Dolgopolov, who is kind of the Kvitova of the men's tour, but with a lower ranking).

Giorgi's next opponent? Pennetta! Interesting. Pennetta, by the way, knocked out Sam Stosur.

Those infections bring on asthma attacks, so it may be some kind of vicious circle. It's not unusual to have both at once. Some people just have weaker immune systems by nature, but I still guess that there are interventions that haven't been tried. Just an instinctive guess.

Hmmm, I didn't catch their later conversations that maybe corrected their "whoops moment," but I hope someone told Davenport/Carillo on TC that while Dellacqua DID become a mother over the past year, she didn't have to have a comeback because of becoming a mother. Of course, she had other reasons for a comeback to be necessary, but giving birth wasn't one of them. :)

Team Davenport/Carillo also seems to think that Sharapova is the best tennis player ever and that Bouchard is her heir apparent. So tiresome.Carillo would rather talk about anything at all over the match at hand. More tiresomeness.

Also, in Indian Wells, TC has had way too many throws to pointless Gimelstob interviews that could have been saved for later. Meanwhile, actual tennis was being played, but not aired. And what the heck was Lisa Leslie doing on set conducting an interview with him of a men's player the other day?? Nothing against her, but... why?

I question Kvitova' coach on several levels. One example: Yesterday, Petra must have missed twenty shots by an inch or two. Both she and her coach should have thought about having at the ready, racquets strung a little tighter. That should be obvious to Kotyza, but apparently it is not. Petra is hitting the ball better lately. There is hope.

Yeah, it was her partner, but LD/MC were noting all the physical maladies Dellacqua was coming back from, then as they went to commercial they threw in that she was coming back from having a baby/becoming a mother, too. Umm, not quite. :)

I think that the anonymous post about string tension is a good one. Missing by very little should immediately bring up the issue of knocking down the racquet's power a bit by switching to one strung tighter. It did not occur to Petra and it did not occur to Kotyza. On days when she is missing mostly by feet or yards, it's a stroke problem. But so many yesterday were by an inch or two that the problem could have been remedied.

I STILL Stand With Maria

About the blog author

Diane Elayne Dees is a writer, a semi-retired psychotherapist in private practice, and a life-long fan of women's professional tennis.

For several years, Diane published the progressive blog, The Dees Diversion, and she also contributed regularly to the Mother Jones MoJo Blog. Diane has published political essays, short fiction and creative nonfiction. For the past several years, she has concentrated on writing poetry (Diane has written several tennis-themed poems).